Thursday, July 8, 2010

Home Sweet Home!

Just rolled up to the D a couple hours ago, what a relief! It took me three days but it's really great to be back home.

The trip started off with a dubious bang as I was pulling out of my community in Delray into Target to return something and to get some drinks and snacks. I had my BMW hooked on the back of my CRV with a tow bar and as I pulled into the parking lot, I heard a cracking noise that didn't sound good. I paused, looked back and didn't see anything suspicious. I put the car into gear to move forward again and there was now a screaching noise, ugh... I decided to get out of the car to take a look and sure enough, the tow bar that I had affixed to the bumper of my Bimmer ripped right out of the soft aluminum and was hanging there by a thread. I was still on the incline of the parking lot and was scared the car was going to break off and roll back out to the road and take out some cars driving by. So, panicked, I looked back and sure enough a police car was pulling in behind me as I stood there watching in disbelief! All the while, there's my dangling car -- I'm thinking, "this thing is going to snap off and roll into the cop car, yikes!"...

Thankfully, the car didn't snap off. And, instead of writing me a ticket for having a half ass tow hookup, the cop got out of his car and helped me push my old Bimmer up the incline and into the parking lot (with the help of another good samaritan). To do this, we had to rip off the rest of the tow bar from the now torn up bumper (it's not that bad and can be hidden with a license plate ;). I then had my buddy Dan come up to Target to meet/help me as I rushed to U-haul to pick up a heavy duty Tow Dolly. I cautiously hooked it up and rolled out of Delray scared to death... I think there's a lesson to be learned here somewhere, ha!

I write this as I lay in my bed at my Mom's place realizing that I didn't tell them the story tonight! I kinda blocked it out of my mind as I was so freaked after it happened knowing that I still had to drive 1200 miles... To put it mildly, I was pretty white knuckled for the first few hours and gradually gained confidence as I rolled along. I couldn't go faster than 55 mph (per the warning stickers on the U-haul rig) and to be honest, wasn't in any hurry after the debacle. So, instead of the trip taking me 2 days, this time it took three and have to say it was pretty smooth except for hitting a nasty storm in southern Ohio that had me driving 40 on the highway with my hazard lights flashing.

So tonight I relax, stretch out my back and get some sleep. Tomorrow I'm going over to my house to drop off some stuff and then down to the Copa to catch a ballgame, yessss! It's my week off the pills then I'm off to New York next week for another PET/CT scan to see where my disease is at.

Seems like yesterday that I was on the golf course talking to my trial coordinator asking questions about my last scan... It'd be nice if I could just forget about all of this and not have the burden of wondering what's going on inside my body. Hoping this change of scenery will keep my mind occupied so I won't have to think about what I might have to do just in case the S&N is no longer holding my disease down.

I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it ;)

Good night from the D

3 comments:

Karen said...

Hoping your next scan shows regression. My son is in the SGN trial with O'Connor. Just finished 5 cycles & scan last wk showed "stable"....sound familiar?? Little less here, little more there. He's continuing on SGN for now with the thought that he might go to SAHA after. He's stage IV, post allo transplant. Reading your blog has been so "validating" to him and to me. I'd like to email you but don't know your address. If you could, please send it to me at ldklconrad@yahoo.com
Thanks! Karen Conrad

Anastasia said...

You're so special. :) Have fun in D.

ConundrumChum said...

I hope your the pet and CT are good. Good luck! I just had all those tests to enter a breast cancer vaccine trial. Every aspect of cancer is stressful.

Good thing you were in a parking lot and not on the freeway when the towbar broke.